10 failed assassination attempts and 10 successful ones

In 1835, a man named Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot President Andrew Jackson in front of the U.S. Capitol, but both of his pistols misfired. Jackson did not flee, and witnesses reported that he confronted his assailant with his cane. This incident was the first known assassination attempt against a sitting U.S. president. 

In 1840, Edward Oxford fired two shots at Queen Victoria while she was riding in an open carriage with Prince Albert, and no one was injured. The shots either missed their target or were fired without bullets, but the act was considered a serious attack. Oxford was committed to an asylum after his attempt failed. 

While campaigning in Milwaukee in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest by a man named John Schrank. The bullet was slowed by items in his pocket, including a folded speech, and he still insisted on delivering his speech afterward. Roosevelt also made several attempts to ensure that Schrank remained unharmed. 

On July 20, 1944, conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a bomb at the Wolf’s Lair, but he survived with relatively minor injuries. The failure of this attack also led to the collapse of a planned coup, resulting in mass arrests and executions. This was not the only assassination attempt against the dictator; another took place in 1939. 

In 1918, Fanny Kaplan shot Vladimir Lenin after an event in Moscow, and he survived despite serious injuries. Doctors were unable to remove all the bullets at the time, and his health deteriorated over the long term as a result. This attempt followed two others in January and March of the same year. 

French President Charles de Gaulle narrowly escaped an ambush in 1962 when armed men riddled his car with bullets in Petit-Clamart. Despite the damage, he and his entourage avoided serious injury, and the attack failed.

In 1975, Sara Jane Moore pointed a gun at President Gerald Ford after he had addressed the World Affairs Council, but the gun did not fire because there were no bullets in the magazine. Secret Service agents immediately subdued her, and Ford was evacuated unharmed. This was the second assassination attempt against Ford; the first had taken place just 17 days earlier. 

Ronald Reagan was shot outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., in 1981 and survived after receiving emergency medical treatment. The shooter, John Hinckley Jr., attempted to kill the president in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had become obsessed a few years earlier. 

In 1981, Pope John Paul II was the victim of an assassination attempt in St. Peter’s Square and survived after being rushed to the hospital. The assailant, Mehmet Ali Ağca, was arrested at the scene and sentenced to life in prison by the Italian government. 

In 1984, a bomb exploded at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, targeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her government. Although Mrs. Thatcher was not injured, five other people were killed, including Member of Parliament Sir Anthony Berry. This bombing was a turning point in the civil conflict in Northern Ireland.

In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of Roman senators during a Senate meeting on the Ides of March. More than 60 people, led by Marcus Brutus, stabbed the dictator 23 times.

On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth, just a few weeks after beginning his second term. Booth was a well-known Confederate sympathizer who was angry over the South’s defeat in the Civil War. 

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip. This assassination is widely regarded as the catalyst for the outbreak of World War I. 

After a prayer vigil in New Delhi on January 30, 1948, Mohandas K. Gandhi was fatally shot by the nationalist Nathuram Godse. Godse and his accomplice, Narayan Apte, were sentenced to death nearly a year later.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, while riding in the presidential motorcade. The assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, died a few days later after being shot by Jack Ruby, the owner of a nearby nightclub. Although we have never known why Oswald assassinated the president, speculation suggests that it was due to his political affiliation with Marxist groups.

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. The alleged assassin was James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. However, the assassination has given rise to much speculation, with some groups believing that it was orchestrated by the U.S. government or the Mafia. 

In the early hours of June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles. Sirhan was initially sentenced to death for the crime, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison four years later. This assassination took place just a few weeks after that of Martin Luther King Jr.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984, after serving several terms as the country’s leader. Her assailants were Satwant Singh, Beant Singh, and her own bodyguards. 

Following a massive peaceful rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir. Amir was considered a far-right nationalist who opposed the prime minister’s efforts to support the Oslo Accords.

On July 8, 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in Nara. The assassination took place in the city of Nara, where the prime minister was delivering a campaign speech. The assassination shocked Japan, which had not experienced a successful assassination attempt on a leader since 1960.